Tag Archives: sept2016

General availability of Java 9 is announced by Oracle and it is coming on Sep 22nd, 2016. The major feature in Java 9, the module system, will be a boon for developers and it will also bring improved scalability and performance to Java platform.

Java 9 release dates and roadmap is finalized by Oracle and you can expect it to be available by Sep 22nd, 2016. If you are interested in trying it out now, the early access version of JDK 9 is available here. The milestone definitions for JDK9 are the same as those forJDK 8.Modularity via Project Jigsaw is a key feature of Java 9. Java 9 will treat modules as a fundamental new kind of program component, with the system improving scalability and performance, a key Oracle Java official says.

In a blog post this week, Oracle’s Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java platform group, discussed the goals of the module system. Chief among them is reliable configuration, to replace the “brittle, error-prone, class-path mechanism” with a means for program components to declare dependencies on each other. Strong encapsulation, which allows a component to declare which public types are accessible to other components, is also a goal.

“These features will benefit application developers, library developers, and implementers of the Java SE Platform itself directly,” said Reinhold. “And indirectly, since they will enable a scalable platform, greater platform integrity, and improved performance.”

Reinhold defined a module as a self-describing collection of code and data. Code within it is organized as a set of packages containing types, essentially classes, and interfaces. Data within modules includes resources and other kinds of static information.

Other than Project Jigsaw and Modularity to Java 9 platform, some of the other notable features worth mentioning are –

jshell – a new command line tool for Java that will add native support and popularize a Java way to REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop).